Patches With Scratches

Patch notes are always subject to change. That’s English for they don’t really exist, but they might one day. I always think it’s important to take a look at them, and try to think about the consequences of the changes. It gives us a certain amount of foresight.

Not to mention bragging rights when we guess right! and I do love my bragging rights.

So, without further posturing, the latest batch of notes!

Engineering

Nitro Boosts now Permanently attaches overpowered nitro boosts to a pair of boots, increasing critical strike rating by 16 (up from 12) and allowing you to greatly increase run speed for 2 sec.Personally, I already like my lollerskates, especially for leveling up on a PvP server. They have saved my hide a number of times, and are always useful, even when they malfunction. Giving them a crit rating has been announced before, and was a welcome change… but 16 is a little low. I’m not complaining though: these little gizmos have saved my rear end even without the crit rating.

For PvE? Near useless. Don’t bother getting them for raids or heroics.

Flexweave Underlay now Permanently attaches a flexweave underlay to a cloak, increasing Agility by 15 (up from 10) and allowing you to turn the cloak into a parachute to fall slowly for 10 sec.Seeing as I have this on my cloak just in case I need to dive bomb, jump off of Wyrmrest Temple, or run away, I think this is great! Being chased? Jump off a high cliff and use the ‘chute. Now with the agility enchant? Great for solo leveling and grinding and exploring! It’s also a cheap way to enchant a placeholder cloak with agility instead of forking over tons of gold for a 22 Agility enchant. But once you find a good cloak you’re keeping for a while, I suggest getting the enchantment, and dropping this… but it’s still not terrible I suppose.

Springy Arachnoweave now Permanently attaches a springy arachnoweave to a cloak, increasing spell power by 18 (up from 11) and allowing you to turn the cloak into a parachute to fall slowly for 10 sec.Same deal as the Flexweave Underlay, but for casters instead. I’m not knowledgeable with casters, but 18 spellpower seems… small. Smaller than 15 agility anyway.

HUNTERS

Survival

Wyvern Sting cooldown has been lowered from 1.5min to 1min.This is a buff, plain and simple. Being able to use this shot every minute is great for PvP utility! More CC makes me a happy hunter in that setting. For PvE, it’s not a big deal, but it can save your raid when used properly. I’ll talk more about the uses of the shot another time: what’s important here is that you can use it more often.

Frost Trap now slows down the enemy by 50%. (Down from 60%)This is the opposite: a nerf. The trap is still the most useful one we have as a non-survivalist, and most important as a PvPer period. This trap is what allowed us to get away. It still will allow us to run out of melee, but not as far or as quickly. This will be noticed, but I think everyone will adapt quickly but learning to disengage properly.

In PvE? This might make kiting Dog Chow’s a little harder, but once again… not by too much.

Resourcefulness now also effects Black Arrow.This is awesome sauce. In every way possible. The 30 second cooldown on Black arrow is a little annoying, but reducing it to 24? That’s great! I don’t know a lot about survival talents, but I should expect some testing done with this talent. With the other changes that have happened to far to Survival, and with the way Lock and Load works, it should be interesting to see how this talent changes Survival playstyle.

Entrapment changed to – When your Frost Trap, Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Snake Trap are triggered you entrap all afflicted targets, preventing them from moving for 2/4/6 sec.This looks similar to what it once was, but it’s not actually. Before, it was a chance that the trap would entrap the target for 4 seconds. Now it’s guaranteed, so long as they don’t resist the trap, and the entrapment effect can last up to 6 seconds!

From a glance, this appears to be a great big buff to PvP. It also makes up for the nerf to Frost Trap, to an extent…

Beastmastery

Animal handler now increases the duration of your Master’s Call effect by 6sec. (Down from 10sec)Well, this… I don’t really know what to say about this. Currently, the talent reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds, which means using it more often. However, with the change going to duration now… hmm.

From what I can see, this is better for hunters for PvP. You now have 6 extra seconds to run away from a rogue without him slowing you down. Although we can’t use the ability as often, being useful for longer I think would be better.

However, I would have liked 10 extra seconds more…

Marksmanship

Wild Quiver now deals 80% weapon nature damage. (Old – 80% Nature damage, wording change?)Who knows. If it’s a wording change, this isn’t much of a change. Actually, right now, the talent states plain old “50% nature damage.” 50% of what? My paycheck? My groceries? My haircare products? Who knows! I think this is indeed just a wording change.

I just want everyone to know that this change is going to make marksmen even more viable for PvP than they already are! Chimera Shot already packs an incredible amount of damage, and for PvP, damage is good. Mix in a built-in Concussive shot, and you have yourself some kiting ability!

For PvE though, looks like it does nothing. /sigh

Efficiency now reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Up from 2/4/6/8/10%)Straight up nerf. Nothing more really needs to be said, right? Okay, a little more.

Efficiency as it stands is more of a filler talent. With this change, it might be actually be sought after.

Glyphs

Glyph of the Monkey has been removed.I have one word for this.

HOLYCRAPWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY!?

This glyph was so useful in PvP! You dodge, you get a move speed boost. It was useful, it was handy, it was one the the must have glyphs for PvP!

The only reasons I can think of Blizzard getting rid of it are two-fold:
1. They don’t like random number generator type things, and this was on their list.
This reason sucks because you can plan on dodging attacks most of the time, and this… well, it’s just not that random.
2. They don’t like having hunter with Fiery feet.
This reason also stinks: I love fire! I stand in it on purpose!.. *cough*

Overall, I just don’t understand why. Maybe having super-fast hunters was OP, but I wouldn’t know, eh Mr. Rogue?

Glyph of Mend Pet has been added – Increases the healing done by your Mend Pet ability by 40%.This is pure win. Right now, glyph of mend pet allows you to save money by not feeding your pet ever; it gave happiness every time you cast it. But we already don’t need food; we have Bloodthirsty, Carrion Feeder, and Guard Dog for our pets. They already “feed” our pet for us.

So, the glyph as it stands is near useless. This new version does a lot of great things for us:
1. It helps your pet survive in PvE fights with lots of AoE.
2. It helps your pet survive in PvP from being smashed without a chance.
3. Makes soloing elites like Gigantaur in Dragonblight a piece of cake.

So, good? Very. Useful? Definitly. Glyph status? Mandatory.

Glyph of Raptor Strike – For 3 sec (down from 5 sec) after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.G… crap. Well, this glyph is still going to be nice to have for PvP, but how useful is it going to be? You don’t want to be in melee in the first place, but it’s going to happen from time to time. So long as you’re staying, you might as well take less damage. Hunter armor usually can get to about ~35-38% damage reduction. This put us up to ~55-58% damage reduction. That’s not half bad. Just make sure you don’t stay in melee for longer than those 3 seconds; if you are any longer, you’re not doin’ your job. Stay out of melee!

Oh, and bonus: if I am reading this correctly, the damage reduction applies to all attacks while under the effect… including magical and ranged attacks. Score!

ConclusionWell, this batch of patch was a seesaw. We have some nerfs, we have some neutral changes, but the majority of changes were beneficial compared to how they are on live. This patch of patch notes is not a bad thing to look forward at all, although Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey is going to be missed.

I liked having my feet light up on fire every once in awhile. It amused me greatly…

At least now my lollerskates have crit rating.

On a final note, I would just like to take a moment to say this. Remember: all this stuff is in your head, and is subject to change.

2 responses to “Patches With Scratches”

Thanks for this, Klinderas. It seems like wowinsider has just given up updating hunters on the latest ptr goings-on. Yeah, I can read the latest patch notes myself but it’s nice to have some analysis too!

Like the engineering changes, but I’m reserving judgement on the proposed BM changes (or lack thereof).